Mexico

MSF continued to run its programme for migrants, offering mental healthcare and psychosocial support, hospital referrals and follow-up for emergency cases.

During the first eight months of the year, some 19,000 people were registered in the shelters where MSF works and nearly 50 per cent received support of some kind. More than 900 medical and 1,100 mental health consultations were carried out in Ixtepec, Tenosique, San Luis Potosí, Apaxco, Lechería, Huehuetoca and Bojay.

At the end of the year, a new centre for migrants who had been victims of inhumane treatment was opened in the capital. Support was offered to people who had been identified and referred by MSF teams and other organisations working in the area.

In Colonia Jardín, Acapulco, MSF offered mental health support to victims of violence and carried out over 3,000 consultations.

In the northern state of Tamaulipas, the general hospitals in Reynosa and Nuevo Laredo offer free, high-quality medical care. In September, MSF handed over its project in Nuevo Laredo to the health authorities, but teams continued to work in Reynosa and other smaller hospitals on the border with the US, providing staff training, mental health services and care for victims of sexual violence, and donating equipment and drugs.

MSF continued to work with the health authorities to implement a comprehensive response to Chagas disease in San Pedro Pochutla municipality, Oaxaca state.

In the first few months of the year, MSF continued to provide psychological support to the parents of the 43 students who disappeared in Ayotzinapa, Guerrero state, Mexico.

MSF also started operations in Tierra Caliente, where violence has led to staff shortages and has disrupted access to medical services by forcing several rural health posts to close. MSF began working in Arcelia hospital, providing access to emergency obstetric services and assisting caesarean sections.